splash of acacia
its startling yellow froth
dreams me into spring
Some things are sacred. In my theory of everything, there is a direct correlation between the number of people who turned up on Jan. 24 to protest a proposed “improvement area” on the top of Fitch Mountain, and the desperation people are feeling about not being heard by the current administration in Washington. The improvement area would have allowed up to 150-person events on the summit of the mountain 12 times a year. By my count, about 125 folks showed up to the large meeting room at Foss Creek Community Center, filled all the chairs and became a standing room only crowd. After the speakers finished their presentations, during the Q&A session, a local resident asked, “By a show of hands, can we see how many people oppose the Park Improvement Area 2?” (the summit, 150-person plan) In an instant, everyone in the room, save a handful, was on their feet. I suspect the handful had fallen asleep or didn’t hear the request. That overwhelming response was a pivotal moment in the meeting.
As a result, when the Parks and Recreation Commission met on Feb. 8 in city hall, the Park Improvement Area 2 had been removed from the proposal plan. Once again, the council chambers were full. When it was announced that the PIA2 had been scratched, there was a full minute of polite but vigorous applause from the attendees. The commission, with their ear to the ground, accepted the management plan with no dissenting votes. The city listened, and the butterflies won. The deer, the foxes, raccoons, skunks, bobcats, all the resident birds, the trillium and the endangered blue indigo plant, they all won. And we, the people of Fitch Mountain, residents of Healdsburg, all of us who reside in Sonoma County, and those who visit from time to time, won.
Progress so often looks like more intrusion by humans, more manmade structures. With the exception of one additional trail, the mountain will be as she has always been, with additional improvements residing on the Villa Chanticleer parcel.
The name Fitch Mountain Park and Open Space Preserve is a contradiction in terms. In government parlance, a park indicates that humans and their conveniences are a priority, while open space preserve suggests a place that should not be improved upon, to be left alone. This has lead to two sets of guidelines that sometimes contradict each other. Linda Selover, a 30-year resident of Fitch Mountain, who recently hiked 160 miles along the John Muir Trail, requested the installation of a few composting toilets along the trail. She brought a photo of the first 10 miles of the Pacific Coast Trail and what happens when no facilities are provided. It was definitely a cautionary tale. As creative as the process and the thinkers involved have been, this notion was dismissed immediately. And yet the problem seems inevitable and will have to be addressed at some point. Another person wanted to know about enforcement of leash laws and downhill speeds for mountain bikers. But we are in the honeymoon phase now and we are not there yet with answers.
As a resident who lives on Fitch Mountain Road, I am concerned about the road itself. The north side of Fitch Mountain is closed now, due to a significant slide right by the north trailhead on Riverview. It’s called the 1998 slide, and hasn’t been problematic to any great extent since then, but the hillside is falling onto the road, which has turned to peanut butter, and the recently named Donita Proctor Creek below has been fouled by the runoff.
Closer to the Villa, the fissure in the road by Scenic Drive has grown to about a foot; a minor chasm. The road has been patched every couple of years by the county employing a method like slathering cake frosting over the existing cracks. Now there is a large discrepancy in the levels of the road, and the slippage of the hillside is hard to ignore. There is also speculation that there is an underground spring running under the road at this point, and/or an earthquake fault.
Supervisor James Gore says it will cost $2 million to do a proper and hopefully permanent repair on this area. And based on the renovation of the viaduct on the south end of Fitch Mountain, there could be some trial and error before the county gets it right. That one took almost two years to complete.
So the preserve, as we here on the mountain prefer to call it, looks like it is going forward nicely, but there are lots of things to think about and resolve before the public has its long awaited access. Above all, the people of Healdsburg have once again opted for the preservation of the feral beauty of Fitch Mountain. Some things are sacred, and this is one of them.
Penelope La Montagne is a former Literary Laureate of Healdsburg and is a Realtor at a local real estate brokerage. She can be reached at on*********@co*****.net.
